• by Ed Martin , January 9, 2014

I began my look back at the ten best television series of 2013 yesterday with special praise for CBS' “The Good Wife,” AMC's “Breaking Bad” and PBS'“Downton Abbey.” Here are four more:

“Game of Thrones” (HBO) – After a confusing (and, dare I say, comparatively dull) second season, HBO’s darkly sadistic and breathtakingly violent fantasy series roared back to life, permeating popular culture in such a way as to expand beyond the confines of pay cable. (In other words, people everywhere were talking about this show, including those who do not have HBO, the way such folks used to talk about “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City.” Somehow they maintained a general awareness of those shows, just as they do “Thrones.”) Even if you’ve never seen an episode you’ve no doubt heard about the infamous Red Wedding, arguably the most shocking sequence on any television series last year, at least until Gemma slaughtered Tara with a meat fork on FX’s “Sons of Anarchy.” “Thrones” also delivered the single most thrilling moment of any series in 2013: The surprise roasting of that nasty slave trader Kraznys by one of Daenerys’ beloved dragons and the freeing of the Army of the Unsullied that followed. If memory serves, I cheered. “Thrones” delights in killing off primary characters without warning. If Daenerys or any of her dragons are among the doomed I may quit this show.

“Broadchurch” (BBC America) – The year’s most mesmerizing mystery was also its most heart-wrenching drama, as a quiet seaside town in southern England was swept up in two detectives’ search for the killer of a little boy. The devastating conclusion left me wondering what the creative team behind this show could possibly do for an encore in Season Two -- and why Fox feels compelled to make an Americanized version of it with the same actor (David Tennant) in the lead role. (Weird.) Why fool around with perfection?

“Top of the Lake” (Sundance Channel) – The year’s other most haunting mystery was this mini-series that was in most respects quite unlike anything ever seen on American television, at least since the pilot of “Twin Peaks” back in 1990. I’m still at a loss to explain why Elisabeth Moss was not honored with an Emmy Award for her work as a determined detective struggling with her own personal issues while investigating an increasingly harrowing missing person case. (Her performance called to mind that of the great Helen Mirren in the “Prime Suspect” series.) “Lake” was the first salvo in a year that saw Sundance Channel propel itself to the forefront of uncommonly smart TV storytelling, and in many ways it prepared us for the profoundly distinctive experiences to be had watching the two gems that the network would next deliver, “Rectify” and “The Returned.”

“Masters of Sex” (Showtime) – Showtime gave us the surprise of the year with a compelling adult drama about the personal and professional lives of medical researchers William Masters and Virginia Johnson, who amid the repression of the late ‘50s defied all conventions and conducted in-depth studies of physical responses to sexual situations, and more shockingly, actual stimulation. “Masters of Sex” in turn explored human relationships with uncommon intimacy and understanding, and on occasion, a hint of subtle humor. It also offered a lot of sex and nudity, although probably not as much as you have been led to believe from all the fuss. The series featured two of the year's most arresting performances by Michael Sheen as Masters and Lizzy Caplan as Johnson, along with wholly unexpected and scene-stealing supporting turns by Beau Bridges as a university provost with a potentially ruinous secret and Allison Janney as his long-suffering but ultimately liberated wife. “Masters of Sex” is not a documentary, but it was documentary-like in its attention to detail, including the quirks of its characters and the nuanced performances by the entire cast.

Tomorrow: The final three series in my ten best list, plus ten additional series that were equally fine.